Completely replaced all playback related code, modernized the player interface, unified the audio/video/Google Cast player views. This should reduce bugs and make adding features much easier going forward.

When streaming a downloading episode, playback switches to the downloaded episode when the download completes.

In iOS 9, audio will now be paused by apps with occasional audio (driving directions, exercise apps, etc) and resumed after that audio plays. This requires other apps to support this type of interaction.

Bug Fixes

Fixes issues with control center/lock screen/remote control events

Fixes several problems with Google Cast support and added support for audio only devices.

Fixes encoding issues causing special characters in episode titles and notes to be stripped.

Fixes crash during background refresh.

Potential fix for subscription duplication.

Fixes sort order for most feeds that publish multiple episodes with the exact same publication date. If this actually *breaks* your per-day sorting of feeds like this, try reversing your sort order. We'll be introducing a secondary sort setting to completely fix this issue for all feeds.

UI improvements for the table rows in the podcasts list. The disclosure triangle has been removed to provide more space for the title and un-clutter the row. The episode summary label is now aligned to the bottom so it looks intentional.

Bug Fixes

Fixes issue causing video player controls not to become visible when tapped screen is tapped if Downcast’s Gestures setting is disabled.

To support iOS extensions, Downcast now uses the built-in iOS sharing feature. This means that support for sharing to some services will require installing apps for those services and enabling their extensions.

"Share" views are no longer dismissed when playback ends

New sound effects

Sounds effects are now decoupled from local notifications (sound effects can now be played even if their associated local notification is disabled)

New local notifications

New Episodes Summary (was "Feed Refreshing")

New Episodes (now displays a notification for episodes discovered from each podcast)

Dropped support for iOS 6 (minimum supported iOS version is 7.1)

Enable "Remote Media Skip" by default

"Skip" button images are now used on the iOS lock screen and Control Center when "Remote Media Skip" is enabled

The "refreshed" date/time is now updated in the background after all podcasts have been refreshed (previously, the date/time was only updated when all podcasts were refreshed during a single refresh cycle)

Stopped syncing episode play position when periodically auto-saving play position during playback (this should improve battery performance and avoid some iCloud syncing conflicts)

iCloud syncing improvements when detecting new episodes during feed refreshes

Fixed bugs in mp3/ID3 chapter detection

Added support for images and URLs defined in mp3/ID3 chapters

Improved chapter navigation (previous/next) when the current play position is not within a chapter

Reverted change made in v2.8.4 that would allow episodes that ended early to be marked as played. Now if playback ends more than 2 minutes before the end of the episode, it will not be marked as played.

v2.8.4 - July 7, 2013

Updated app icon and logo images

Removed links to DAR.fm

Nested categories are now indicated on podcast and episode details views

Episodes with publication dates in the future that don't have media files defined are now ignored when parsing feeds

Improved episode syncing conflict resolution

Fixed bug that prevented new podcasts synced in from iCloud from being associated with the proper playlists

Updated RSS parsing to choose a "valid/supported" enclosure URL when more than one exists per episode

When refreshing a podcast feed, only update the existing episode with an updated enclosure URL if the existing episode is not local or the new enclosure URL is not blank. To avoid user confusion we never want to clear out the enclosure URL for a local episode.

Better handling of seeking to the correct position when starting playback (especially for AirPlay to Apple TV)

Improved workaround for iOS API bug that causes resuming playback of episodes at incorrect positions when playing at > 1x

Fixed saving of wrong play position when skipping media files due to Wi-Fi connection

Better handling of "Wi-Fi Only" behavior, including not considering a lack of internet connection to violate this setting, properly handling "next" and "previous" episode playing as well as "Now Playing" episode status on startup